Local florist designs Rose Bowl floats

When revelers are counting down the minutes tonight that will usher in the new year, Susan Hands will be sound asleep.

The 61-year-old Scituate florist wants to be wide awake on Tuesday when the two floats that she helped design will be on display before millions worldwide at the Rose Bowl Parade.

“When you're working in a shop and doing small arrangements, that's one thing. But coming out here is just the ultimate,” said Hands, a floral designer at Valente's Florist in Plymouth who has helped create floats for 11 years for the extravaganza in Pasadena, Calif.

On New Year's Day, Hands and the other floral designers will watch their creations glide by from VIP seats in the bleachers at the stadium. The parade will feature more than 50 floats constructed from chicken wire and covered entirely in organic material, including millions of flowers imported from around the world.

For the past decade, Hands has headed to Pasadena on the day after Christmas to get ready for the parade. She has been going to bed early on New Year's Eves, exhausted after a week of working 14-hour days.

This year, Hands has been working feverishly as a lead floral designer for Phoenix Decorating Co., a company that creates floats for the parade. She has organized thousands of blossoms into giant, intricate shapes in a bid to win the attention of judges and crowds.

Hands says her favorite float was a fire-breathing dragon created for Farmers Insurance Co. in 2004. It was given an award for best animation and motion.

This year, Hands is in charge of the floral designs for floats titled “Passport to the Pacific,” a float created for the City of Long Beach, and “We Celebrate Family,” created for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California.

“Passport to the Pacific” features an octopus attacking a submarine in an underwater scene that has been created in blossoms and dried herbs and pods.

“We Celebrate Family” boasts a giant red shoe, from the top of which bursts a large Victorian house. The design evokes the charity's work to ensure that the families of sick children have somewhere to stay while they are receiving treatment at hospitals.

“We have more flowers than you've ever seen,” Hands said. “And ... there are beans and Brussels sprouts and kumquats and onion seeds.”

This year's parade will be a little bittersweet for Hands, whose mother died last year on New Year's Day. Despite the timing, Hands said there is no place she would rather be this year.